As a former colony for centuries, we know that Malta’s democracy is bound up intimately with our sovereignty. Sharing our sovereignty with the European Union must not mean that we lose our sovereignty altogether. If we do not influence EU decisions enough to also express our national interests, such decisions will not only be shaped without us but also against us.
If important decisions are taken top down in Brussels, citizens feel that they have been deprived a say in shaping their life and democracy has been degraded to a hollow ritual. It might not lead to more Brexits but it will certainly lead to more ‘citizenexits’.
The European Parliament, on April 11, voted with 336 in favour, 163 against and 39 abstentions to include the right to abortion in the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights. Despite parliament’s approval, an amendment to the Charter requires all 27 member states to vote in favour. So far, therefore, the vote is only symbolic as all member states, including Malta and Poland, have to agree to its inclusion in the charter.
The European Parliament also called on all EU countries to fully decriminalise abortion in line with the 2022 World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines to protect the health of women and girls and help prevent over 25 million unsafe abortions that currently occur each year around the world.
The decision to decriminalise abortion in Malta should be taken in Malta by Maltese citizens, either through a referendum or by electing a party to government with an electoral manifesto that includes this policy. What kind of democracy deprives the citizens from discussing and deciding on such an issue?
In September, we will be celebrating 60 years of national independence when we achieved the right to become masters of our destiny for the first time in 8,000 years. Two days ago, we commemorated 20 years since we joined the EU. That step was hailed as an enhancement of our sovereignty, not as a negation of it. We become a colony again if we lose the democratic right to participate fully in decisions that shape our daily life.
Participating fully does not mean doing it indirectly through our six MEPs out of 705 members, set to increase to 725 after June when our weight there will continue to diminish. The issue of abortion should be resolved like we resolved the issues of divorce and gay marriages: either through a referendum or through an electoral mandate.
Promoting sovereign democratic decision-making within the EU is becoming more urgent. The ‘bigs’ within the EU are increasing their pressure to weaken the influence of the ‘smalls’ by promoting qualified majority voting to abolish unanimity voting on key issues. Fifteen countries of today’s EU are small and medium sized. We must form a coalition. All of us will still have a veto in approving the EU’s new rules. We must make sure that any rule changes do not make us lose our sovereignty completely to become colonies in a hegemonic EU of the ‘bigs’.
Abortion should be resolved like we resolved divorce and gay marriages: either through a referendum or through an electoral mandate- Evarist Bartolo
The EU is not a mystical union of equal states. It is a union of former empires and former colonies. The former empires have lost their empires but not their imperial mindset. Do the former colonies want to be colonised again?
Building from roof down
A democratically governed EU cannot treat any of its members like colonies. It will be like trying to build a house from the roof down. A democratic EU has to be built from the ground up with the diversity of its member states, otherwise what will be built will not be a democratic bloc with the active involvement of the people.
No doubt, as small countries we will be lectured about the necessity of sacrificing our ‘narrow’ national interests, so as to become good Europeans. But big countries do not hold back from putting their national interests first, before that of the EU.
As small and medium states we also need margins for manoeuvre to be able to act in our own national interests. We must not blame others if we fail to create such margins because of poor leadership in terms of vision and skill.
In Malta, we often find ourselves lost in trivial political discussions so that EU dossiers of vital importance and which profoundly affect us end up being overlooked. It is not easy for a small country like ours to cope with the volume of work within the EU structures. But victimhood will get us nowhere. As government, parliament, social partners and civil society, we must do all we can to work smarter together and pull in the same direction where core national interests are concerned.
We must stop looking at the EU as part of foreign affairs as most of our decision making takes place within the EU. Our politicians should become less, not more, parochial, allowing others to decide for us. That is neither wise nor democratic.
Sharing sovereignty in the EU makes the room for manoeuvre in national politics narrower. In our arenas of gladiator politics, ‘the narcissism of small differences’ flourishes. The more similar our substantial policies are, the more we project them symbolically as different.
We cooperate in the European Parliament but in our national politics we tear each other apart. An increasing number of voters feel that we are simply giving them a choice between bad and worse, reducing politics to boring bickering. Larger sections of our working population across the EU feel let down and betrayed by mainstream parties, and if they vote at all they vote for anti-establishment parties, where they exist.
Sharing sovereignty with the other 26 member states in the EU should not mean that we lose all rights to decide what happens in our country.
If that happens, we will have started our slide back into becoming simply inhabited rocks off the coast of Sicily.
Evarist Bartolo is s former Labour foreign and education minister.